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LGBTQ Legacy Leader Awards, G.G.'s Chicken and Waffles, the great outdoors
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June 16, 2020  |  VIEW AS WEBPAGE
 
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This year's LGBTQ honorees share their stories and the lessons they've learned in this video by Good Plan Productions.

HEAR FROM THE 2020 LGBTQ LEGACY LEADERS

Join us as we honor this year's LGBTQ Legacy Leaders, including ally John Forsyth, in a free virtual event this Thursday, June 18, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Held in partnership with One Iowa, the event also will include the presentation of the 2020 graduates of the organization's Leadership Institute. Register here.

To learn more about this year's inspiring group of honorees, click on the video above and read their stories in the current issue of dsm. We'll see you Thursday!
JOIN US FOR THE JULY/AUGUST ISSUE UNVEILING

We look forward to when we can once again greet all of you, our readers, in person at our unveiling events. In the meantime, we're excited to welcome you to our free virtual Mix & Mingle event next Tuesday, June 23, at noon to unveil dsm's July/August issue as well as our annual edition of Inclusion magazine. The Food Bank of Iowa is hosting the event, at which you'll learn more about the vital work the organization is doing to address the growing problem of food insecurity across our state. You'll also get a virtual tour of the Food Bank's facility.

In addition, the event will include the announcement of a special dsm and Business Record community initiative. And you'll have the opportunity to meet and connect with others when we split into smaller breakout rooms. So grab a beverage of your choice, fire up your computer and join us as we celebrate the new issue!
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G.G.'s Chicken and Waffles are served with Big Daddy's BBQ or Lola's Fine Hot Sauces, depending on which type of flavor you like.

AT THE TABLE WITH G.G.'S CHICKEN AND WAFFLES

Writer: Karla Walsh

Each week in dsmWeekly, we’ll introduce you to a local food company owned by a person of color. Missed part one last week? Learn about Street Eats DSM here.

What started as a disappointing meal turned into a beautiful business opportunity for Garrison Goodlet, owner of G.G.’s Chicken & Waffles.

“In 2018, my wife and I went to the West Coast and waited in line at a famous chicken and waffles place for over an hour. My wife was getting hangry!” Goodlet says, laughing at the memory. “Once we got the food, we were like, ‘Is this it? I’ve made chicken at my church better than this.' That planted the seed.”

At the time, he didn’t immediately think, “Hey, let’s start a business.” But by 2019, Goodlet was able to pin down and perfect the recipe for the beloved fried chicken he had made countless times for charity and communal meals at church. “God put the inkling in my mind to start this business,” Goodlet says.

Last year, he launched his business and applied for a vendor spot at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers' Market. As an occasional vendor in 2019, G.G.’s made an appearance about once a month, and they also popped up at the Valley Junction Farmers Market, “they” being Goodlet himself, his son ("the Waffle King"), his wife, his father-in-law/business manager, and his mother-in-law.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to bond and to teach my son responsibility,” Goodlet says.

In addition to supporting his family, Goodlet is all about supporting local. G.G.’s rents a commercial cooking space in Kitchen DSM at the Hall, uses Big Daddy’s BBQ sauce in the barbecue chicken and waffles, and dresses the hot version of the chicken and waffles with Lola’s Fine Hot Sauces.

While “COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in things” in their plan to be a weekly vendor at the Valley Junction Farmers Market this summer, Goodlet plans to start making appearances soon after the market officially opens for the season.

As for the future of G.G.’s? “If we were in a warmer city, maybe we’d think about a food truck, but I’d love to have a brick and mortar someday. I live in Ankeny, so maybe Prairie Trail? We need to grow our following and blow things up,” Goodlet says.

For now, you can help them “blow things up” by following the brand on Facebook, where Goodlet shares entertaining recipe demo videos, and Instagram. Then, once the stand opens up, be sure to save room to splurge. Then be sure to have zero regrets about doing so.

“If you’re going to cheat, you might as well cheat with us—it’s worth the food coma," Goodlet says.  


Goldie's breaded pork tenderloins are legendary. Grab one to go and enjoy it in the nearby Community Park.

GOLDIE'S IN THE GRAND OUTDOORS

Writer: Wini Moranville

As part of my Iowa staycation this year, I’ve decided to “make it new” by enjoying picnics in places I’ve never picnicked before—an adventure made even more pleasurable with great fare from restaurants found near the destination.

Last week I headed to Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City. While the dining room is currently shuttered, the pickup and drive-through windows are wide open.

We could have taken our lunch to the nearby Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge, which offers picnic tables adjacent to the currently closed visitors center. However, these tables currently sit in direct sunlight. For a shady option, we headed to Prairie City’s spacious and delightful Community Park, which has plenty of picnic tables under trees and open-air shelters. You’ll also find a basketball court, volleyball net and disc golf course.

For lunch, we split one of Goldie’s famous hand-breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches (they snagged the Iowa Pork Producers Association’s award for best-breaded pork tenderloin a few years back). With almost cushy-soft meat, Goldie’s version truly puts the “tender” in tenderloin; add to that an ultra-crisp and crunchy fine-crumbed breading, and you’ve got a tenderloin worth driving for. Also recommended: the secret-recipe homemade potato salad, a sweet-tinged yellow-mustard version flecked with bits of onion, egg, homemade sweet-pepper relish and celery seed.

After lunch, we walked a trail at the Wildlife Refuge. One of the things I love when I travel is to feel a remarkable strangeness in my surroundings. At some points, when the vista offered nothing but sloping tallgrass prairie dotted with songbirds, wildflowers and butterflies, I felt that sense of wonder. And it was only 30 miles from Des Moines.
Two local DJs created  "Limited Space: Quarantine Edition" to show off art and music in a live setting.

AN ART AND MUSIC SHOW MADE FOR QUARANTINE

As a DJ, sometimes if you can't find an event, you have to create your own. It was that line of thinking that led Soren Albaugh (DJ Rock Paper Scissors) and Lyndon Haselhuhn (DJ Lyndrum) to create Limited Space: Quarantine Edition, a free Art Week event that will combine art, music and theatrics in the Des Moines Art Center parking lot at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The impetus behind the idea was simple, but it didn't come quickly, Albaugh says. During the pandemic shutdown, Albaugh and many of his peers were out of work. So they started to brainstorm ways to redesign Limited Space, an event concept they launched two years ago, while keeping people safe.

They settled on a drive-in concept, where patrons sit in their cars while enjoying the show. The event will showcase art from more than 80 creators projected onto a screen, accompanied by music. So far, there seems to be some buzz around an actual in-person event for the first time in about three months, Albaugh says.

"It's been very positive," he says. "So many people are still concerned about the virus, and they want to be responsible toward their own health, but also to everybody around them. They are craving live events. People are just excited."
Ken-Matt Martin and Tiffany Johnson joined the dsm CultureCast podcast to chat about Pyramid Theatre Co. and the Black Lives Matter movement.

'WE WANT TO GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK'

For Pyramid Theatre Co., elevating black voices has been the goal since the organization was founded in 2014. Now with the national discourse centering on Black Lives Matter, its mission is as important as ever, Tiffany Johnson, producing artistic director, said on the latest dsm CultureCast podcast.

"We knew six years ago now that black voices needed to be heard and weren't being heard, especially here," Johnson said. "[We wanted to operate] in a way that would really serve as a catalyst for social change for our communities. Not only do we want to make art that people love to see ... we want to speak to our people. And we want to also give them an opportunity to speak."

Ken-Matt Martin, one of the founders and the former executive director of Pyramid Theatre, said, "For us as black people who came together to found this theater company with the sole purpose of illuminating our own voices and stories, we are all active in the movement in different ways." Martin and Johnson have joined the marches in recent weeks and see Pyramid Theatre playing a key role in the community conversation.

You can listen to the full episode here. Read more about Martin here and Johnson and Pyramid here in these stories from the dsm archive.  
Fox Brewing is releasing its "Black is Beautiful" coffee stout at noon Saturday. Photo: Fox Brewing

FOX BREWING CREATES 'BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL' BREW

Fox Brewing has created a special brew for “Black Is Beautiful," a national campaign founded by Weathered Souls brewery in Houston that asked breweries to show racial solidarity in craft beer, with a portion of the proceeds going to nonprofits supporting racial justice. The new beer will be released at 12 p.m. Saturday.

The West Des Moines brewery incorporated beans from BLK & Bold Coffee, a local black-owned business and tenant of Fox Brewing, into its coffee stout version of “Black is Beautiful." A portion of the proceeds from this beer will be donated to the NAACP Des Moines.

“Fox Brewing has always been committed to raising up and supporting all local businesses, but at this time, we felt it was important to do something more to support our friends and colleagues in the black community," says Brian Fox, owner of Fox Brewing.

The price is $17 plus the cost of the growler for 64 ounces, and $9 plus the cost of the growler for 32 ounces. Pre-order by emailing brian@foxbrewco.com or by messaging Fox Brewing on Facebook. The brewery will be open from noon to 11 p.m. Saturday.
 
 
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